Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Tournament Blu-ray Movie Review

Check your brain at the door for this tournament.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 3, 2011

Back in the days before the home video market ever existed, television in the late 1960’s became littered with what were optimistically labeled “World Premiere” events. While some of these nascent straight to video (as in airwaves) features actually did see a theatrical release in Europe, most were simply nothing other than 90 minute to two hour tarted up versions of episodic series fare, usually featuring any given network’s stars of the moments, along with “special guest stars” who were usually either mostly forgotten A-listers of a previous era or current B-listers who, when compared to their small screen counterparts, actually tended to give a project a touch of starry class. Once home video took off, a lot of these made for television items actually filled the marketplace of those first VHS tapes and, later, DVDs. The straight to video market has ostensibly become more sophisticated, but that’s of course a relative term, as something like The Tournament makes abundantly clear. This feature had an evidently long and tortured production history, and despite being touted as a potential theatrical release, seems consigned to the straight to home video market to achieve whatever return on its investment it’s likely to reap. Like a lot of this kind of release, there are passing pleasures to be had, but overall the film is a mishmash of ideas and techniques you’ve seen a thousand times before. It’s a relentless action thrill ride, that much can’t be denied, but there’s really not much else to The Tournament other than a series of usually well executed (in every sense of that word) sequences where various professional assassins meet their maker in what is supposed to be a once in every seven years’ tournament to crown the best professional killer in the world. There’s not enough character background here for an audience to become emotionally involved in the story, and in fact the closest thing to achieving lasting interest may be a sort of drinking game where you get to take a swig every time a hapless fallen Priest (Robert Carlyle, evidently picking up a paycheck), who gets sucked into the tournament unawares, manages to escape the muzzle of a gun and/or the sharp blade of a knife pointed at his grizzled head. That drinking game might also have the unintended (or, indeed, intended) effect of numbing the senses to the rest of the lunacy which makes The Tournament a brain dead actioner that never does anything much more than leave a trail of corpses in its wake.

The Tournament begins with a brief prelude showing the “final match” of its titular contest from seven years ago, when one Joshua Harlow (Ving Rhames, evidently also picking up a paycheck) remains the last assassin standing. Fast forward seven years to present day England, a country which in these terrorist prone times is blanketed with the most closed circuit television cameras in the world, which makes The Tournament’s “producers” salivate at the coverage potential for their new contest. A series of assassins has been recruited to take part in this newest tournament, and they descend upon a midsized English city where they’re all summarily drugged and then implanted with a tracking device. Oh, and just for fun, the tracking devices will begin exploding after 24 hours, making the assassins’ quick work all the more imperative. We get a cursory introduction to a bunch of these people, who serve as nothing other than types. We have the Asian femme fatale (Kelly Hu), the Russian (Scott Adkins), the Frenchman (Sebastien Foucan) and, lest we forget the good old United States, the crazy Texan (Ian Somerhalder). It turns out that Harlow is back for a second round to avenge the murder of his pregnant wife from a few months prior to this year’s tournament. Into this mix wanders alcoholic Father MacAvoy (Carlyle), who manages to down one of the tracking devices spirited away in a cup of coffee which the Father purloins after a bender.

This is a film which sets up a marginally interesting premise and then just lets the dominoes—and the bodies—fall. We get a series of nicely staged action sequences, with a variety of battle techniques employed, but there are so many cliché-ridden moments slathered onto this film that most viewers will probably want to shoot the screen themselves. When the luckless Father has just ingested the tracking device, and has thus “identified” himself as participating in The Tournament to the other players (all of whom carry handheld devices which help them locate their competitors), we get a series of “close calls” where the Priest’s head appears in a rifle’s scope repeatedly, with the trigger just about to be pulled—until a truck, or another passer-by, or any number of other obstacles, darts into its path. How many times have you seen that one before? Too many, if you’re like most people.

The Tournament tries to gin up some human interest in the three interlinked stories of MacAvoy, Hu’s character Lai Lai, and Rhames’ Harlow, but it boils down to a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. The Tournament would have done better to just have played this straight through for the action elements, and let the chips fall where they might, sort of like the similarly lame brained, but actually much more enjoyable, D.O.A. (based on the videogame). Director Scott Mann has a good eye for action sequences, and if he’s able to graduate to big budget blockbusters, may have a solid career ahead of him. What he needs, though, is a project which doesn’t cater to the lowest common denominator. The Tournament is no match for a slew of similarly themed films which have come down the pike through the years, and it definitely feels like one of those supposed “World Premiere” (non)-events from years past.

The Tournament Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Tournament has a surprisingly strong transfer, courtesy of an AVC encode, in 1080p and 1.78:1. Though it was probably shot on a pittance, the film looks decently sharp, with nicely saturated colors and some excellent fine detail. A lot of the film is filtered to that ice blue side of things that so many directors and DP's think make an action flick look "cool" (as, literally, blue does), and that can give an odd cast to fleshtones and surroundings at times. But I was really kind of pleasantly surprised throughout much of The Tournament with the level of clarity, with some exceptional depth of field in many of the exterior shots. This doesn't have that lo-fi telefilm ambience which hampers a lot of lower budgeted releases. This is certainly not top of the line hi-def material, but for something of this ilk, it looks a lot better than you might expect it to.

The Tournament Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Even better is the bombastic lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Of course with an action flick like The Tournament, you know you're going to be pummeled by LFE, and that's certainly the case here. The fight sequences erupt through the surround channels with a fair degree of aggression, and there's quite a bit of attention paid to details large (as in some over the top explosions) and small (as in the sound of knives being unsheathed). Dialogue (for what it's worth in this film, which frankly isn't much) is well positioned, clear and always easy to hear. And best of all this is a film that doesn't browbeat the listener with endless, thumping underscore cues. There's not anything particularly subtle about The Tournament's sound mix, but it's fun, immersive and sports excellent fidelity, and in a film with these modest ambitions, that's about all you can hope for.

The Tournament Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this bare bones release.

The Tournament Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even the best of us longs for the occasional mindless piece of entertainment, and if you're in the mood for something unchallenging that features lots of explosions, gunplay and hand to hand mayhem, The Tournament should suit you to a tee. Otherwise, it's simply too generic, despite an interesting premise, to ever gain much traction. This particular Blu-ray does sport a surprisingly strong transfer, however, so might make a fun evening's rental.